Train 425, the 4:40 "Superexpress" out of North Station encountered a slight delay last night 12/27, when a mentally disturbed individual got in a heated argument with the conductor. Not sure what the argument was about, but the guy almost assaulted the conductor, who showed great restraint. 425's crew radioed to Boston West and was instructed to stop at the outbound platform in Waltham where the individual was escorted off by a pair of Waltham's finest. In all my years of riding the commuter rail, I've never seen anything like that.

Later in the evening of 12/27, the outer reaches of the Fitchburg Line were a mess with some signal issues around CPF-WL, and the appearance of a Pan Am "Grain Train", which had to be split into two sections and (I think) POED all competing for the same Track Space. The D3 dispatcher had his work cut out for him last night.

For 12-30-2013, the Service Alerts were posted for Fitchburg Line delays sometime before when I looked at 0735. My knowledge of the radio part of things started at 0635 when D-3 advised 406 there would be switch troubles at CPF-AY, 408 getting the same advice a few minutes later. At 0655, someone -- mebbe 406 -- got a 241 at AY on 2. At 0659, 408 got a 241 for 1 to 1 at AY, 410 getting the same at 0722.

BostonUrbEx wrote:^ From the sounds have it, Amtrak had an electrical fire. Some (or all?) of the catenary is OOS. Perhaps signals are screwed up as well.

No delays reported for NE Regional #170, as we speak, NB through Kingston. No text alert either (I signed up for it when I purchased my tix.)Still about an hour from that area though. Will see when we get there.

GE45tonner wrote:Supposed to be a massive Nor' Easter coming in tomorrow/friday. Not looking forward to seeing how they hold and the massive amount of service alerts piling in.

Hopefully the mbta doesn't fall apart like a couple years ago. First storm of 2014 is how we start the second day of the year. I'm looking forward to a possible snow day the first day back to school after christmas vacation